MY FRIEND
The American Heritage dictionary defines a friend as a person one knows, likes, and trusts. A favored companion; one who supports and sympathizes. Let’s analyze that definition.
DID I KNOW KITTY?
I knew her age, her address, her telephone number, and her favorite color. Kitty liked to bowl, dance, travel, bake cakes, and play the card games Uno, and Whist. She loved God, her mother, her son, her siblings, her nieces and nephews, her sister-in-laws, her friends, jazz music, and my homemade rolls. She disliked people who sang that couldn’t sing, family feuding, pretentious people, bad weather, and missing out on my homemade rolls. I knew quite a few other things Kitty liked and disliked. Yes, I knew Kitty.
DID I LIKE KITTY?
I liked the patience Kitty had when trying to teach me how to do the dance called the “Bus Stop”. I liked the way Kitty tried to consoled me when I was down, putting aside the fact that losing her only child had to be worse than anything I was facing. I liked her smile, her laughter, the way she said funny things without trying to be funny. I liked her ability to apologize even when she felt she was right. Yes, I liked Kitty.
DID I TRUST KITTY?
Kitty and I talked on the phone often. We shared intimate experiences that were only shared by very close friends; secretes we knew about one another that we laughed about while vowing to carry them with us to our graves. So far, I believe nothing I shared with Kitty ever reached the ears of others. So, yes, I trusted Kitty.
WAS KITTY A FAVORED COMPANION?
Kitty went with me to every community theater that was performing my play 227, including Kalamazoo Michigan, and Los Angeles California where Marla Gibbs from The Jefferson’s was performing it at her theater. Kitty traveled with me all the way to Oklahoma City for my son’s wedding and later never commented on the fact that the marriage lasted about fifteen minutes. Kitty was a favored companion.
I never had a birthday party, and I had many or presented a play at the Mississippi Club and there were many that Kitty did not attend.
Written by Christine Houston
Posted by Cathy Milne-Ware
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Ilee_wu’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Tony Donnelly’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
